MOSCOW, June 17 (RAPSI) – A court in Belarus sentenced a Russian national, who had organized supplies of sanctioned fruit and vegetable products from Western Europe and Turkey to Russia, to 5 years in prison, the Belarusian Committee of Public Accounts informs Monday.

The court found the Russian citizen guilty of intended understatement of the company’s tax base. In addition to the prison term, the court confiscated Mercedes car, 6 lorries and 4 semi-trailers from the defendant. Moreover, after the completion of sentence the man will be banned from holding posts to manage the affairs and business for 5 years, the statement reads.

A criminal case was opened in 2018 over tax evasion on an especially large scale. Investigators found that a director of ElitOvoshchTorg private company was involved in illegal reexport of products from Poland and Turkey put under Russian sanctions. According to the Belarussian Committee of Public Accounts, from 2016 to the first quarter of 2018, the company was responsible for organizing more than 1,000 hauls of 20-ton goods-carrying vehicles to Russia.